The Cool Hunter, Roaming the globe so you're in the know

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We love the global cool design sensibility of Casamidy products. It is firm that combines that design sensibility with a deep respect for traditional craftsmanship. All products are designed by the founders, husband-and-wife team Anne-Marie Midy and Jorge Almada, and manufactured by more than 40 artisans, artists and craftspeople in San Miguel De Allende, Mexico.

The materials – iron, leather, tin, blown glass, wood – are turned into timeless and distinctive furniture and furnishings- seating, tables, shelving, lighting, headboards, mirrors and other accessories. The team has created customized pieces for numerous interior design firms in Europe and the U.S.

Midy is a French born graphic designer who worked for Martha Stewart Living. She met the Mexican-born Almada when both were studying design in the U.S. They moved to San Miguel De Allende and established Casamidy in 1998. They currently reside in Brussels where they also have a showroom for Casamidy with weekly deliveries to London and Paris. - Tuija Seipell.

White Animal Life (WAL) tableware, a collection created by Amsterdam-based interior designer Emilie Kröner, attracted attention, for example, at this year’s New York and Milan Design Weeks.

The collection includes a rhino and hippo oil-and-vinegar set, elephants as salt and pepper shakers, a flamingo carafe, leopard napkin holders, and a crocodile serving dish perfect for candy, olives or asparagus.

In all, White Animal Life is a decidedly ill-functioning set of curiosities for the table. Or, if that is too harsh a description, at least Kröner puts form and beauty bravely ahead of function.

Playfully, she has modelled the white beasts on 17th and 18th –century tureens and other serving dishes that were created and displayed as curiosities and conversation pieces at lavish dinner parties. WAL is Kröner’s first foray into product design. We look forward to more. - Tuija Seipell

The Italian wallpaper company Wall & Decò is known for creating exquisite, large-scale mural-like wallpapers that define a room. They are widely used in hotels and restaurants, and for private residences by interior designers.

In April at the Fluorisalone 2012 in Milan, Wall & Decò introduced a new wallpaper system designed for the outdoors.

Their OUT - Outdoor Unconventional Textures - system is a three-part covering that allows for incredible photographic reproductions and large-scale graphic designs to be applied onto outside walls. The system consists of an adhesive, a technical fabric and a finishing treatment.

The designs introduced in Milan included a Bauhaus look, a black-and-white OP pattern, tile-initiations and even military camouflage. We believe this is an idea that has staying power, and that it will expand and improve as feedback from early users comes in. - Tuija Seipell

These minimalist, slightly retro — and dare-we-say cute – lamps come from New Zealand. They are the result of cooperation between veteran craftsman Douglas Snelling and his artist daughter Rebecca Snelling.

They established their company, Workroom, in 2008 and its collection currently includes tables, stools and lamps. In 2010, Rebecca and her partner Paul Dowie opened a physical retail store Douglas + Bec on St. Mary’s Road in Ponsonby, Auckland. It sells not just Workroom pieces but also others that fit their sensibilities of natural raw materials, clean lines and craftsmanship. Douglas + Bec sells also online. - Tuija Seipell

We have offered a few special products for sale on our site before and we are now excited to continue this by bringing to you this super sexy light made of wood.

The American Oak veneer shade has a big presence — 40 inches (101.1 cm) in diameter and 27.5 inches (70 cm) in height — yet it seems to float serenely in the air. The shade adds a warm Scandinavian glow to you decor in any room at home, and it looks great in the office, too, over a conference table or above a seating area. Bulb and fittings are customized to your geographic location, so you should have no problem setting it up.

You can order it here and pay by PayPal. (for bulk orders, send us an email)

How about adding some shockingly bright neon color to a vase made of the iconic Limoges porcelain and shaped in the classic tapered vase form? That is what French company La Tête Au Cube has done in accordance with their mission to be “slightly offbeat and completely off the wall.”

The clay comes from the Limoges area where the famous hard-paste porcelain has been manufactured since 1771. The “fluo vases” are also made in Limoges, hand-crafted and therefore each slightly different. Currently available in green, orange, yellow and graphite.

Jérôme Fischbach and Thierry Galloni d’Istria who established La Tête Au Cube in 2005 promise a neon pink fluo porcelain plate early in 2011. You can buy these beauties on their site and in selected stores in France.

The dark, gamine profile of this chair channels black-and-white photographs of prim Scandinavian living rooms of the early-to-mid 60s. Mother in a dress and pearls, Dad holding a pipe and wearing a cardigan knitted by Mother. Children in neckties and hair bows. Shiny and skinny-legged teak table surrounded by equally slim, dark-wood chairs.

This delicate chair is not named Bambi but DC09, which, in turn, reminds us of Alvar Aalto’s Artek and his product numbering. The chair’s thin seat and straight, slim legs disguise a deer-like strength and agility, allowing the wood to hug the body and the chair, elegantly, to take up minimum visual space.

These sculptural cast-concrete planters caught our eye as being perfect when presented in a massive row poolside at a Zaha Hadid-designed beach house. The tallest version of these is 45 inches (about 110 centimeters) high, an impressive presence even without plants. We’d imagine these will look spectacular used to display a bunch of tall dry grasses or branches, outdoors or in. The planters, made by Phoenix, Arizona-based Kornegay Designs, are called the Quartz Series.

The company has no inventory, as each planter is made to order. Custom colors shown in the image are azurite, citrine, topaz and amethyst. We also like Kornegay’s beautifully rounded Dune Series planters. - Tuija Seipell

Designed by the Berlin-based studio böttcher+henssler, Coen lamps are a white version of the designers’ dark prototype lamp, Troll. Although Troll is made of sheet metal, it brings back images of an upturned wooden ancient sauna accessory — a pail with two handles — called “kiulu” in Finnish. In contrast, the slim, white (and silver) Coen lamps are supremely stylish, quite at home next to an Alvar Aalto Paimio chair.

Coen lamps are part of the new collection by the lighting manufacturer ANTA Leuchten GmbH. Coens will be introduced at Salone Internazionale del Mobile’s Euroluce next week.

Böttcher+henssler is a product design studio founded in 2007 by Moritz Böttcher und Sören Henssler. Winners of a red dot product design award and other accolades, the duo focuses on designing beautiful and functional consumer products. - Tuija Seipell

One thing we really love at The Cool Hunter is reinvention. Taking a fresh approach to an established form is at the foundation of innovation and we applaud anyone who can pull it off - like Ron Arad who has created this incredibly unique luxury bath concept, which turns the traditional bath on its head, literally. Aside from its obvious aesthetic appeal - it's like a giant art installation for your bathroom - its also multi-purpose, transforming from bath to shower as the whole unit revolves. Arad worked with Italian bathroom design brand Teuco to bring the concept to life. At this stage it's still a prototype but Arad is confident that with Teuco's production expertise his bath dream will soon be a reality in our own homes. We want one now. -Lisa Evans (via Sept issue of Wallpaper magazine)